Location: United States
Member Since:
April 03, 2011
Ken Mink
Biography
About the Author
Ken Mink has spent more than 50 years as journalist/author.
A Kentucky native, he retired from active newspaper work in 1998 but continued to serve as a journalist, editing an online magazine. Ken Mink lives in Knoxville, Tn., semi-retired after a 48-year career as a newspaper. He is editor of the travel magazine, The Travelling Adventurer (www.travellingadventurer.com), and writing freelance articles for newspapers and magazines. Other daily newspapers he worked for include the Lexington, Ky., Herald-Leader, the Dayton, Ohio, Daily News, the Bristol, Va., Herald-Courier, Kingsport, Tn., Times-News, Harrisonburg, Va., Daily News-Record and the Hopkinsville, Ky., New Era.
He is the author of several books, including So, You Want Your Kid to be a Sports Superstar, Teen Gunslinger, A Bloody Trail, Nightmare on Black Mountain, Serpent on the Cross, Tail of the Dragon,The Rag Tag Gang, Terror on the Appalachian Trail, The Mailman Murders, The Cola Caper, Heaven & Hell: Mysteries Unveiled and Hoops Dreamer: The Ken Mink Story.
But he is perhaps best known as the World’s Oldest College Basketball Player. He was unjustly expelled from college in 1956 while playing on his college team at Lees Junior College, Jackson, Ky. After retiring in 2007 he got the urge to try to return to college basketball at age 73 to finish his career. Incredibly, he made the team at Roane State College, Harriman, Tn., and went on to play in seven games and scored in three, setting numerous world records. He was featured on numerous national TV shows and was highlighted in hundreds of newspapers and magazines. He has signed with a Hollywood producer to do a movie based on his life.
Ken Mink has spent more than 50 years as journalist/author.
A Kentucky native, he retired from active newspaper work in 1998 but continued to serve as a journalist, editing an online magazine. Ken Mink lives in Knoxville, Tn., semi-retired after a 48-year career as a newspaper. He is editor of the travel magazine, The Travelling Adventurer (www.travellingadventurer.com), and writing freelance articles for newspapers and magazines. Other daily newspapers he worked for include the Lexington, Ky., Herald-Leader, the Dayton, Ohio, Daily News, the Bristol, Va., Herald-Courier, Kingsport, Tn., Times-News, Harrisonburg, Va., Daily News-Record and the Hopkinsville, Ky., New Era.
He is the author of several books, including So, You Want Your Kid to be a Sports Superstar, Teen Gunslinger, A Bloody Trail, Nightmare on Black Mountain, Serpent on the Cross, Tail of the Dragon,The Rag Tag Gang, Terror on the Appalachian Trail, The Mailman Murders, The Cola Caper, Heaven & Hell: Mysteries Unveiled and Hoops Dreamer: The Ken Mink Story.
But he is perhaps best known as the World’s Oldest College Basketball Player. He was unjustly expelled from college in 1956 while playing on his college team at Lees Junior College, Jackson, Ky. After retiring in 2007 he got the urge to try to return to college basketball at age 73 to finish his career. Incredibly, he made the team at Roane State College, Harriman, Tn., and went on to play in seven games and scored in three, setting numerous world records. He was featured on numerous national TV shows and was highlighted in hundreds of newspapers and magazines. He has signed with a Hollywood producer to do a movie based on his life.
Where to find Ken Mink online
Where to buy in print
Books
The Knoxville Lottery Murders
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 19,780.
Language:
English.
Published: December 21, 2012
.
Categories:
Fiction » Thriller & suspense » Action & suspense, Fiction » Mystery & detective » Police Procedural
This is the story of a crazed killer who loses a $2 million lottery ticket at a friend's football TV party and goes on a rampage of murder as he seeks to find the people who have found his lottery ticket. He uses ingenious methods to evade detection as his rage holds a city in terroristic hostage. A mild-mannered bookkeeper by day and a sadistic killer by night, the villian is hard to detect.
A Tear For Sarah
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 17,400.
Language:
English.
Published: December 21, 2012
.
Categories:
Fiction » Historical » USA, Fiction » Inspirational
This is the story about a young Kentucky woman who in 1862 finds herself in dire straits because her husband is away from home serving the Union Army in the Civil War. She has been left alone with her small daughter and finds she cannot cope with her problems so she decides to take her child on a harrowing journey to his military post and bring him home. Based on a true story.
BIG BLUE BLUES: The Inside Story of the Kentucky Basketball Point Shaving Scandal
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 38,520.
Language:
English.
Published: November 4, 2011
.
Categories:
Fiction » Plays & Screenplays » American, Fiction » Sports
NaNoWriMo 2011 book. Last updated
2011-11-04 06:44:29
This is the inside factual story of how point shaving scandals hit several colleges in the 1940s and 1950s. The most affected school was the University of Kentucky, which had won three national championships and an Olympics in the four years preceding the disclosure of how gamblers had paid players to influence the outcome of important games.
Geezer Wars: Over-the-Hill Seniors Wage Hilarious Sports Battles
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 10,480.
Language:
English.
Published: September 15, 2011
.
Categories:
Fiction » Young adult or teen » Humor
This is the story of how a bunch of senior athletes – age 75 and up – become involved in a hilarious, and sometimes vicious, battle for supremacy in a Florida slow pitch softball league. Hal Redwine coaches a team called The Geezer All-Stars and they are trying to overcome a longtime nemesis team, The Reprobates.
The Rag Tag Gang: The Hilarious Story of America's Zaniest College Football Game
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 23,430.
Language:
English.
Published: September 12, 2011
.
Categories:
Nonfiction » Sports & outdoor recreation » Football & rugby » American football
This is the story of the characters and circumstances surrounding the wildest college football game ever played: Georgia Tech’s 222-0 victory over little Cumberland University on Oct. 7, 1916, in Atlanta. Cumberland dropped football after a disastrous 1915 season in which it was outscored by an aggregate 276-0 in five games. Tech wanted revenge, no matter what
The Cola Conspiracy
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 16,460.
Language:
English.
Published: August 3, 2011
.
Categories:
Fiction » Mystery & detective » Police Procedural
Three down-on-their-luck people in Atlanta come up with a product-tampering extortion scheme, demanding a cola company provide them $2 million or they will place HIV-positive contaminated colas on store shelves. The trio uses clever tricks in avoiding capture and frustrating police and FBI officials. The story has a surprising unique twist at the end.
The Mailman Murders
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 30,870.
Language:
English.
Published: July 2, 2011
.
Categories:
Fiction » Mystery & detective » Police Procedural
John Parker had been a mailman for nearly 30 years. Now, his two teen daughters are ready to go off to college. But they want to go to elite schools: Harvard and Emory. The one-year cost for the two at these schools is more than $105,000 and John and his wife have a combined income of only about $100,000.
John in desperation resorts to crime to try to raise money.
Hoops Dreamer: The Ken Mink Story
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 19,260.
Language:
English.
Published: April 5, 2011
.
Categories:
Nonfiction » Biography » Sports biography
This is the story of a young Eastern Kentucky boy who achieved his dream of becoming a college basketball player, only to see his dream unfairly snatched away from him. But 53 years later he managed to revive his dream and return to the college basketball court at age 73, becoming the oldest college basketball player in history, setting numerous world records in the process and become famous.
So, You Want Your Kid to be a Sports Superstar
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 35,560.
Language:
English.
Published: April 5, 2011
.
Categories:
Nonfiction » Relationships & Family » Parenting
Millions of parents want their children to be sports stars, but far too many cause more harm than good in trying to help their children succeed. Oftentimes, mistakes by parents results in lifetime rifts. To help parents make all the right moves this book profides valuable information and advice from coaches, sports stars, doctors, trainers, etc., in getting the best from their children.
Serpent on the Cross
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 32,020.
Language:
English.
Published: April 5, 2011
.
Categories:
Fiction » Christian » Suspense
Virgil Hawkins gave up an Army career to return to his Tennessee homestead to run the family farm, a promise he made to his dying father. Hawkins becomes the pastor of a rural church which practices snake handling as part of its belief system. Hawkins continues the snake handling practices, much to the chagrin of his teenage son. Several church snakebite deaths result in a national controversy.
Nightmare on Black Mountain
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 46,980.
Language:
English.
Published: April 5, 2011
.
Categories:
Fiction » Thriller & suspense » General
Based on a true story. A small Eastern Kentucky mountain community becomes outraged when it is learned that a disastrous coal mine explosion was caused by company greed. The company violates several safety rules, leading to the entrapment of 32 men in an underground mine.
Teenage Gunslinger
by Ken Mink
Price:
$0.99 USD.
Words: 50,140.
Language:
English.
Published: April 3, 2011
.
Categories:
Fiction » Graphic novels & comics » General, Fiction » Plays & Screenplays » American
This is a story of a teenage boy who's father and mother were brutally murdered by renegade cowboys in the Old West. When he reaches age 18 he sets out to try to find the killers and on his five-year odyssey he becomes a noted fast-gun killer and runs info many problems in his multi-state manhunt.
Ken Mink's tag cloud
1940s
1950s
aclu
adolph rupp
baseball
battling a bear
cattle drives
cheating
civil war 1860s kentucky cumberland gap
coal mining explosion trapped miners
college
college basketball
company greed
competition
contracts
crime extortion gays nightclubs revenge hivpositive colas atlanta police fbi
crime serial killer burglary murder investigation police detectives
cumberland
florida
football
forging rivers
fraternities
gamblers
games
georgia tech
highest scoring
history
humor
illegal pros
indians
john heisman
ken mink
ken mink basketball
kentucky
kid sports children success training advice learning to excel parental guidance pushy parents experts
knoxville police lotteryserial kiler murder revenge deciet crime investigation
ku klux klan
leagues
lees junior college
military battles
mountain trails
murder
ncaa
old
old west cowboys revenge gunslingers
oldest player
olympics
overcoming odds
plotting
point shaving
puzzle postal
realism
records
redemption
retirees
revenge
roane state
seniors
slow pitch
snakes church controversy appalachia rural religious beliefs tennessee politics courts
softball
stampedes
stars
teenagers
tennessee
trickery
union army confederate army
violence
violence appalachia rioting small town kentucky
wildest games
womens spirit
world records
wounded in battle soldiers hardships